Are drivers willing to face insurance risk?

November 25, 2013

Passage of legislation to increase mandatory minimum auto insurance premiums for bodily injury and property damage that West Virginia drivers must pay would probably cause many of them to drive without any coverage at all. That was the conclusion that a representative of the automobile insurance industry gave members of a legislative study committee last week in Charleston.

Right now, drivers in West Virginia must have minimum coverage of $20,000 for bodily injury to one person, $40,000 for injury to two or more people and $10,000 for property damage.

During the 2013 regular session of the state legislature last winter, the State Senate considered a measure (SB443) to raise those minimums to $25,000, $50,000 and $25,000. But while the legislation was endorsed by the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee, it died in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Jill Rice, president of the West Virginia Insurance Federation, told lawmakers at last week's hearing on the proposed legislation that passage of the higher minimum coverage would "have the effect of pushing people into the uninsured population." She said it would increase premiums for drivers carrying minimum coverage by between $24 and $71 a year.

Rice predicted that this would be enough to cause many low-income drivers who have difficulty affording the current minimum coverage to simply drive without insurance. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Corey Palumbo, D-Kanawha, asked what percent of drivers in West Virginia currently carry minimum coverage because "I think we need to understand how many people would be impacted if we do this."

While she was unable to provide a figure, Rice did say that she understands "anecdotally that about 17 percent of state drivers" have the minimum coverage. Later, responding to an inquiry from Delegate Tim Manchin, D-Marion, about whether or not most of these drivers with minimum coverage are so-called "high risk drivers," Rice said she didn't have the answer.

But she did say a "lot of high-risk drivers fall into the 20-40-10 coverage because that's the premium they can pay."

During the regular 2013 legislative session last winter, trial lawyers supported the idea of higher minimums. They noted that the current minimums have been in place since 1979 and are "unrealistically low" compared to present-day costs for medical care and for automobile repair or replacement.

Sen. Herb Snyder, D-Jefferson, was surprised that the insurance industry opposes an increase in the mandatory minimum coverage. He said he would expect the industry to want to sell more insurance. He said the insurance companies that provide his business "always want me to have more coverage."

Meanwhile, there are about 170,000 veterans in West Virginia, which is one of the highest veteran populations in the United States. And a recent report found this state also has one of the highest rates of overdose deaths in the country.

West Virginia University professor Joseph Scotti told members of the Legislature's Select Committee on Veterans Affairs last week that many of these veterans can't "make themselves get help." Others don't believe others will understand or that the treatment will actually prove to be helpful.

Scotti, who runs an organization that helps veterans to try and make a successful transition back into civilian life, presented data from a 2012 survey of more than 1,200 West Virginia veterans. It revealed that more than one of every five veterans in this state is a suicide risk. Nearly half of this state's veterans meets the criteria for depression and about one of every four suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Delegate Barbara Fleischauer, D-Monongalia, is co-chair of the legislature's veteran affairs interim committee. She said after last week's meeting in Charleston that legislators need to emphasis to veterans that there is "nothing wrong with getting treatment. That says we need to be talking more about the fact treatment helps."

Finally, only five of the 50 states have no regulations to deal with individuals who own exotic animals such as tigers or alligators, and West Virginia is one of those states, a legislative interim committee was told last week. As a result, state wildlife officials have no idea about the number of these animals. But in the past, alligators, a water buffalo and a lion have escaped from their owners in this state.

Last year, legislators passed a bill to require permits for private owners who house animals like tigers or lions in West Virginia. But Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin vetoed that bill on the grounds that it was too expensive to regulate such a law. So now officials in the Division of Natural Resources want a law passed at the 2014 legislative session that would establish a commission to define which animals are banned.